180 – Ibn Mīlah ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Iṣbahānī *
The Imām, the exemplar, Shaykh al-Islām, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Māshādhah (1) Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Mīlah ibn Khurrah (2) al-Iṣbahānī—an ascetic, an authority on farāʾiḍ (the laws of inheritance), and the shaykh of the Sufis.
He was born a little after 320 AH.
He heard ḥadith from: Abū ʿAmr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥakīm; Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūnus al-Abharī; Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ṣaḥḥāf; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Aswārī (3); ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad ibn Fāris; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Usayd; Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿĀṣim; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Khashshāb; the judge Abū Aḥmad al-ʿAssāl; Ghiyāth ibn Muḥammad; and several others.
He dictated a number of sessions, some of which have come down to us.
Those who narrated from him include: Rajāʾ ibn Qawlawayh; Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Thaqafī, the chief; Abū al-Ḥusayn Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad al-Jawharī; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Sūdhurjānī; his brother Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh; Abū Naṣr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Simsār; and others.